Friday, August 9, 2013

Friday Focus - Buttons, Buttons, Buttons!

Hello friends of Frilly and Funkie! Welcome back to our weekly Friday Focus column where we focus on one product or group of products sold in The Funkie Junkie Boutique, give you some fun inspiration for using the products and discount the products 15% for an entire week. Check out this week's Friday Focus category in the boutique for an awesome selection of buttons, all 15% off.

I don't know too many female crafters who don't love buttons. I certainly am partial to them and love purchasing unusual ones for the boutique. My recent purchases have ranged from bright and cute to vintage and grungy with girly and shabby in between. So I made a few tags for to showcase the variety that is now available at The Funkie Junkie Boutique.

Let's start with shabby and girly. For this tag, I fashioned a little garland using Venise lace and embellished it with these darling floral wooden buttons. I started with one of the jumbo manila tags sold in the boutique and stamped it using my all-time favorite Wendy Vecchi gingham background stamp from the Nature's Art set using Victorian Velvet DI. And of course the edges were all sponged with Vintage Photo DI. I broke out one of the new Wendy Vecchi archival inks - Potting Soil - to stamp the sentiments. The die cut was done from chipboard covered with Sticky Back Canvas using the Sewing Room die, then run through the Damask texture fade and sponged with Victoria Velvet DI. The skirt is made from one of the border doilies sold in the boutique, the waist band is coffee dyed Venise lace and the necklace is a corner filigree also sold in the boutique. Love that butterfly diecut with the tiny sewing spool body wrapped with burgundy burlap thread.

Next I created a vintage button card to showcase these lovely vintage style silver tone buttons. You could use this button card as the focal piece on a card or a mixed media project. If you would like to print this card, here is a link to the website where I found it (scroll down a ways).

I was in Pier One yesterday and they had a ton of the cutest Halloween decorations which really put me in the mood to start creating some Halloween crafts. Again using a jumbo manila tag, I created a dark and stormy night feeling by spreading some Black Soot distress stain on my craft sheet, sprinkling Pewter Perfect Pearls powder over it and dredging my tag through it until coated - love the silvery shine it results in! I sponged the tree with Peeled Paint to give it some whimsey, coated it with Rock Candy distress crackle paint and embellished it with black polka dot buttons with tiny purple burlap thread bows. The Graveyard On the Edge die was used for the tombstones, cut from plain brown chipboard and painted with two coats of metallic silver distress paint. I heat dried each coat and it resulted in cool bubbling and pitting on the surface. Core'dinations Kraft Core was used for the vintage lace topper and the RIP, both sanded with a sanding grip to reveal the kraft core. The bat and the 31 were also cut from chipboard and painted with Black Soot distress crackle paint. The Halloween ticket stamp is from the Odds and Ends set and cut with the ticket decorative strip die. Everything was adhered with Claudine Helmuth Multi Medium Matte.

And finally, just a very simple tag done in Wendy Vecchi's style with some of her products. I first made a puddle of Frayed Burlap DS and Picket Fence DS, and dredged my jumbo manila tag through it to coat it. I used the Lovely Leaves stencil to sponge the leaves with Peeled Paint DI. Then, using the new Potting Soil archival ink, I randomly stamped the script stamp from the Live and Make Art set, then did second generation stamping with the flowers from Daisy Art. The sentiment, stamped with Potting Soil ink, is also from the Live and Make Art set, overstamped with the flowers from Daisy Art and sponged with Peeled Paint and Vintage Photo. The flowers were cut with the Tattered Flowers Decorative Strip die and I honestly don't know what colors they were sponged/dyed with. They were in my stash, left overs from a prior project. The button centers are the carved coconut shell buttons carried in the boutique. I loved their grunginess and just had to buy a bunch to carry in the store!

Hope you enjoyed my button extravaganza. Hop on over to The Funkie Junkie Boutique to check out the Friday Focus sale, running now through next Thursday. Most of the products used to make the three tags can be purchased at The Funkie Junkie Boutique where most name brands are sold at 20% below MSRP. Check out our great selection and pricing!

12 comments:

Oh, my gosh, Linda!!! You've given me so many ideas for buttons. I have quite a stash and I love using them any way I can, but that Halloween tag has my mind spinning with ideas! All of the tags are fantastic!!

What a superb showcase for your amazingly wide range of buttons Linda. Love the spooky tree and Wendy Vecchi style flowers, but my favourite has to be the dressform with those flowery buttons. Great projects. Hugs, Jenny x

Hi, Linda! I've had a wild and crazy few months and I'm just now getting back to reading my blogs. How I have missed your gorgeous creations. These tags just make my heart happy. Your work is so thoughtful and the details just delight. Thanks for sharing your lovely art with me. It really made my day!